In addition to the general purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU) found in all computers, many graphics oriented workstations are also equipped with special purpose display cards—i.e., expansion cards whose function is to generate and output images to a display—that are optimized for three-dimensional (3D) graphics or gaming. Example display cards include those manufactured by nVidia Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif., such as, but not limited to, the NVIDIA® GeForce® graphics processor and the NVIDIA® Quadro® systems. In certain display cards, the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is a multi-core programmable resource for both graphics and non-graphics processing.
While such graphics cards are useful in displaying data, no known prior art method has been developed to utilize these graphics cards to successfully perform parallel processing of data to provide near real-time embossed meshes for use, for example, in medical procedures such as, but not limited to, dental restoration procedures.